cliff. >> all right. he doesn't see it as a cliff. he sees it as a pretty good deal that they negotiated over a year ago that puts him in a position where he doesn't have to negotiate, that he can negotiate from a position of strength. >> but he has a slight other problem and that's at the end of december we're going to bump up against the debt ceiling and he wants that debt ceiling to go up. here's another thing he did which maybe you can explain this to me, but we've had all these problems with running up the debt, this unlimited credit card here in washington. the president sent the secretary of the treasury to come up with another brilliant idea which is this. the president no longer wants to get mer mission from congress to raise the debt ceiling. he wants to make the decisions himself so he's got this unlimited credit card to run up the debt ceiling and he thinks that's going to go over. >> this really harkens back to two presidents, wilson and roosevelt, both of whom when they were up